Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Only the following two couplets of this poem have been published in the source; the complete poem has not been published.

Ṣarf u manṭıḳ u edebiyyât u kelâm u ḥikmet
Hey’et ü hendese vü naḥv ü ḥadîẟ ü tefsîr
Cümle gördüm oḳudum baḥẟ ü tefrîdler görüp
Eyledim bilmege anıñ ekẟerinde taḥrîr

In English

1. Morphology, logic, literature, theology and philosophy; astronomy, geometry, syntax, hadith and Qur'anic exegesis;

2. All of them I have seen and studied, witnessing debates and detailed analyses; on most of them I have written so that they may be known.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The couplets are the 90th and 91st couplets of the first kaside in Âkif's divan. According to Öntürk and Tunçadam, in this 96-couplet kaside presented to Sultan Ahmed III and Dâmâd Ali Paşa, couplets 79-94 form the fahriye, the section in which the poet praises himself and presents his condition. The article did not publish the whole kaside. The metre is not stated in the article.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first couplet is almost entirely a list of sciences: morphology (sarf), logic, literature, theology (kelam), philosophy (hikmet), astronomy (heyet), geometry (hendese), syntax (nahiv), hadith and exegesis (tefsir). This enumeration, built on the repeated conjunction "ü", is an example of the figure called tâdat (enumeration) and sums up the curriculum of an Ottoman madrasa. In the second couplet the poet says he studied all these sciences, took part in their debates and wrote on most of them. The fahriye is the section of a kaside in which the poet reminds the person praised of his own worth; what is praised here is scholarship rather than poetic skill.

Historical Context

Öntürk and Tunçadam give these couplets as an example of the places in his kasides where Âkif says that he read and wrote much and knew sciences such as logic, literature, theology, hadith and exegesis. The boast is supported by the sources: Hüsameddin calls him the greatest scholar of his age in legal methodology and one who knew the Arabic sciences thoroughly; according to his grandson's work he was someone consulted on exegesis, hadith, lexicography, legal methodology and literature. For the poet's life, see the article Îdîzâde Âkif Mustafa Efendi.

Bibliography

Online sources